Submarines of this type usually consist of an essentially cylindrical pressure hull as well as one or more extending apparatus, for example in the form of a periscope, an aerial mast, or likewise which are arranged in the region of the tower and serve for accessing regions above the surface of the water in the submerged condition.
Military submarines are first and foremost designed for combating marine vessels and for this purpose usually comprise torpedoes as weapons. In particular with large, atomic-powered submarines it is counted as belonging to the state of the art to provide so-called launch shafts from which weapons in the form of missiles may be started for combating ground targets (U.S. Pat. No. 5,677,506).
It is further counted as belonging to the state of the art to provide a machine gun on the deck of the submarine. This weapon may however only be applied in the surfaced condition, and in the submerged condition produces an unfavorable flow resistance, and is furthermore complicated with regard to its design since all components of the weapon must be resistant to sea water and must be deigned in pressure-resistant manner.
The submarine-launched-air-missile for combating helicopters developed in Great Britain (SLAM for short) is much more favorable in this respect. Here, a missile launcher is arranged in a pressure-proof container and after the submarine has surfaced to such an extent that the tower region with the container comes out of the water, the container lid is opened and the missile launcher is extended on a mast out of the container. Disregarding the fact that the submarine must always be brought into the semi-submerged condition for this purpose, the missile launcher has the disadvantage that on the one hand the weapons launched with this have a very high destruction force and on the other hand are very sophisticated and expensive so that it is not suitable for tactical purposes such as for stopping commercial ships or for seizing pirate ships.
Modern submarines today thus only have weapons which may be applied against targets of middle to long range. Here it is the case of missiles and torpedoes which create extreme damage to the targets if they don't completely destroy these.
These weapons, for tactical as well as economic reasons may not be used against smaller, slightly armed marine vessels as would be required in order to have an influence in the required manner, be it to stop them, to force them to turn back or to initiate a search. The combating of land targets in coastal regions may also not be effected from these submarines.